PLEASE NOTE: This review is written for the 2021 Minetest Game Jam version of this game, by a PARTICIPANT. I used Minetest version 5.4.1 to playtest.
The idea for the game is okay, but I think there are just too few levels. There are no sounds. Also, the game doesn't have too many puzzle concepts as well. I appreciate the little "story", but it's still just too little, too boring. Sorry.
There are sounds though. It's meant to be a small puzzle game, and I believe the mechanics were used in a few different ways for different puzzle concepts. I kept the number of levels to a minimum to prevent needless repetition.
How many levels did you play? I felt like there were enough (considering the jam time constrains). I was actually surprised by the parkour levels, I hadn't considered you could use vials for that when I was first introduced to the mechanic. When I replayed the game my level solutions were completely different.
I can confirm there being sounds.
What do you mean about the game not having too many puzzle concepts? I can read that as a good thing and a bad thing. I will assume a bad thing judging by your general review mood.
Do you think the game could have had more puzzle elements? Or were you led to expect more puzzle elements than you got?
Okay, since this game is the Game Jam winner (congrats!), I decided to play it again to give it another chance.
My rating does not change.
First of all it turned out the level I was stuck in was not broken, there were just blocks hidden behind ... Whoops.
Sorry, I still dislike this game. Why? Well, I just don't think the whole game concept just works out for me. So, the idea with the mirror seems interesting to me, but the way it is executed is what I don't like.
Levels:
Meh. So the first levels introduce the concept (obviously), easy enough. But then it just feels like a bit of simple thinking is needed and that's the level. The levels are all a little different each other but overall I still don't like them, the whole "you must constantly look how the other side of the mirror looks like" concept just does not work out for me. It is annoying to check, count squares, to get the blue cubes to be placed correctly.
I really hate the levels in which you have to jump and run / parcours. I really hate the levels in which you have to finetune your jumping skils.
This is such a chore, when you jump and mirror, your jumping direction is suddenly wrong, during the jump. This is highly annoying and doesn't add to the puzzle skills at all, let alone parcours skills. Chainging your jump direction mid-jump is super infuriating.
Some of the levels are based on random guessing, basically. You try to mirror blindly and hope you end up in some interesting hidden room. This gets VERY frustrating when you have to do this blind mirroring over and over again, like in a maze, except you have limited samples. I honestly skipped those levels. I basically knew the solution but got too bored to actually do it.
Then the mirroring isn't implemented 100% clearly. It works most of the time BUT I could manage to teleport myself at least partially "into" blocks a couple of times. Given that this is the essential "selling point" of the game, this is bad. Also another annoying thing, when you have to know precisely where you will "mirror", you have to "guess" sometimes because it's hard to count the single squares when you are on the far side of a mirror.
I noticed that when you used up all the samples, you must start COMPLETELY over. No way, this is just mean, there's no good reason for that. You're just forcing to replay the levels the player already solved. It doesn't make sense. This should have been per-level, not per-game. Or maybe not limiting the mirroring at all. Since no level makes use of the "you're only allowed to mirror X times" restriction. A saving feature is also lacking, but it probably doesn't matter given the game is very short.
And my criticism with lack of game elements stands. The two game elements are basically "solid cube" and "diggable cube". So the placing of the diggable cube gets boring fast. It just appears on the other side, meh. In some levels I had the feeling I could instantly see the solution, but doing the solution was a chore because of the weird jumping mechanic. This is not fun for me.
And there is zero indicator that at least help you seeing where the stuff would go on the other side, like a preview, so you can see before clicking.
I think only 2 elements just aren't enough to be interesting for a long time.
Graphics are minimalist, and the player graphic / hand is completely missing. Nothing against minimalism, but the graphics also lack basic effects or animations. Everything is completely static. There are no effects at all, it's literally just normal cubes. Meh, it feels too cheap to me.
Sounds DO exist (sorry, I must have turned sound off) but I think they're meh. Also, I think there could be more, since many events (like level complete, or WALKING) are silent. There's no environmental sounds or a theme music of any kind, the game is completely silent most of the time, which just adds to the feeling of boringness.
The only good thing about this IMO is that the game is in a sense "complete". However, I feel like it is TOO small, especially too few levels. I would have expected more for something that had 3 weeks time. All of the criticisms I have could have been easily fixed during that time period, but weren't. The amount of levels is very low.
Sorry for the harsh words, but I honestly did not enjoy the game, these are my honest feelings about it. I don't think I have huge interest in a version that has more levels, unless this game is like reworked completely.
(You might say I'm just salty because my game lost and yours won but that's not true. I don't like my game either, I had terrible time management, lol.)
This is such a chore, when you jump and mirror, your jumping direction is suddenly wrong, during the jump.
Imagine the blocks on the other side of the mirror are on your side of the mirror. The direction change when you mirror is based off of that. When playing I never had to change my jumping direction except for when I guessed the positions wrong.
I noticed that when you used up all the samples, you must start COMPLETELY over. No way, this is just mean, there's no good reason for that
I think they ran out of time
I would have expected more for something that had 3 weeks time
I could say the same for your game, do you have a good idea of how much time they were able to put into this?
PLEASE NOTE: This review is written for the 2021 Minetest Game Jam version of this game, by a PARTICIPANT. I used Minetest version 5.4.1 to playtest.
The idea for the game is okay, but I think there are just too few levels. There are no sounds. Also, the game doesn't have too many puzzle concepts as well. I appreciate the little "story", but it's still just too little, too boring. Sorry.
There are sounds though. It's meant to be a small puzzle game, and I believe the mechanics were used in a few different ways for different puzzle concepts. I kept the number of levels to a minimum to prevent needless repetition.
How many levels did you play? I felt like there were enough (considering the jam time constrains). I was actually surprised by the parkour levels, I hadn't considered you could use vials for that when I was first introduced to the mechanic. When I replayed the game my level solutions were completely different.
I can confirm there being sounds.
What do you mean about the game not having too many puzzle concepts? I can read that as a good thing and a bad thing. I will assume a bad thing judging by your general review mood. Do you think the game could have had more puzzle elements? Or were you led to expect more puzzle elements than you got?
Okay, since this game is the Game Jam winner (congrats!), I decided to play it again to give it another chance. My rating does not change.
First of all it turned out the level I was stuck in was not broken, there were just blocks hidden behind ... Whoops.
Sorry, I still dislike this game. Why? Well, I just don't think the whole game concept just works out for me. So, the idea with the mirror seems interesting to me, but the way it is executed is what I don't like.
Levels: Meh. So the first levels introduce the concept (obviously), easy enough. But then it just feels like a bit of simple thinking is needed and that's the level. The levels are all a little different each other but overall I still don't like them, the whole "you must constantly look how the other side of the mirror looks like" concept just does not work out for me. It is annoying to check, count squares, to get the blue cubes to be placed correctly. I really hate the levels in which you have to jump and run / parcours. I really hate the levels in which you have to finetune your jumping skils. This is such a chore, when you jump and mirror, your jumping direction is suddenly wrong, during the jump. This is highly annoying and doesn't add to the puzzle skills at all, let alone parcours skills. Chainging your jump direction mid-jump is super infuriating. Some of the levels are based on random guessing, basically. You try to mirror blindly and hope you end up in some interesting hidden room. This gets VERY frustrating when you have to do this blind mirroring over and over again, like in a maze, except you have limited samples. I honestly skipped those levels. I basically knew the solution but got too bored to actually do it.
(to be continued)
Then the mirroring isn't implemented 100% clearly. It works most of the time BUT I could manage to teleport myself at least partially "into" blocks a couple of times. Given that this is the essential "selling point" of the game, this is bad. Also another annoying thing, when you have to know precisely where you will "mirror", you have to "guess" sometimes because it's hard to count the single squares when you are on the far side of a mirror.
I noticed that when you used up all the samples, you must start COMPLETELY over. No way, this is just mean, there's no good reason for that. You're just forcing to replay the levels the player already solved. It doesn't make sense. This should have been per-level, not per-game. Or maybe not limiting the mirroring at all. Since no level makes use of the "you're only allowed to mirror X times" restriction. A saving feature is also lacking, but it probably doesn't matter given the game is very short.
And my criticism with lack of game elements stands. The two game elements are basically "solid cube" and "diggable cube". So the placing of the diggable cube gets boring fast. It just appears on the other side, meh. In some levels I had the feeling I could instantly see the solution, but doing the solution was a chore because of the weird jumping mechanic. This is not fun for me. And there is zero indicator that at least help you seeing where the stuff would go on the other side, like a preview, so you can see before clicking. I think only 2 elements just aren't enough to be interesting for a long time.
(to be continued)
Graphics are minimalist, and the player graphic / hand is completely missing. Nothing against minimalism, but the graphics also lack basic effects or animations. Everything is completely static. There are no effects at all, it's literally just normal cubes. Meh, it feels too cheap to me. Sounds DO exist (sorry, I must have turned sound off) but I think they're meh. Also, I think there could be more, since many events (like level complete, or WALKING) are silent. There's no environmental sounds or a theme music of any kind, the game is completely silent most of the time, which just adds to the feeling of boringness.
The only good thing about this IMO is that the game is in a sense "complete". However, I feel like it is TOO small, especially too few levels. I would have expected more for something that had 3 weeks time. All of the criticisms I have could have been easily fixed during that time period, but weren't. The amount of levels is very low.
Sorry for the harsh words, but I honestly did not enjoy the game, these are my honest feelings about it. I don't think I have huge interest in a version that has more levels, unless this game is like reworked completely.
(You might say I'm just salty because my game lost and yours won but that's not true. I don't like my game either, I had terrible time management, lol.)
(Anyway, still congrats for winning. :P)
Imagine the blocks on the other side of the mirror are on your side of the mirror. The direction change when you mirror is based off of that. When playing I never had to change my jumping direction except for when I guessed the positions wrong.
I think they ran out of time
I could say the same for your game, do you have a good idea of how much time they were able to put into this?